The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-07-14

touching his DroW. Inc casual, the ace1-
dental, that which merely happened so,
are parts Of great plan, and the rope that
let's the fugitive aposie from the Damas-
Gus wall is the cable t. tholds 10 It's moor
ing the ship of the church In the northeast
storm of the centuries.
i Again, notice unrecognized and unre-
corded services. Who spun that roper
Who tied il to the basketT Who steadied
the illustrious preacher as he stepped into
itp Who relaxed not a muscle OF the arm
or dismissed an anxious look from his face
until the basket touched the ground and
discharged its magnificent cargo? Not
one of their names has come to us, but
there was no work done that day in Da-
mascus or in all the earth compared with
the importance Of their work. What IL
they had in the agitation tied knot that
could slip? What if the sound of the mob
at the door had led them to say: "Paul
must take care Of himself, and we will
take care Of ourselves2" No, mol They
held the rope, and in doing so did more
for the Christian church than any thoue
sand of us will ever accomplish. But God
knows and has made eternal record Of their
undertaking. And they know. How ex-
ultant they must have felt when they read
his letters TO the Romans, to the Corinth-
ians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians,
to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to
the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus,
to Philemon, to the Hebrews, and when
they heard how he walked out of prison
with the earthquake unlocking the door
for him, and took command of the Alex
andrian corn ship when the sailors were
nearly scared to death, and preached n ser
mon that nearly shook Felix off his judg-
ment seat. hear the men and women
who helped him down through the window
and over the wall talking in private over
the matter, and saying: allow glad l am
that we effected that rescue! In coming
times others may get the glory of Paul's
work, but no one shall rob us of the
satisfaction of knowing that we held the
rope"
Once for thirty-six hours we expected
every moment to go to the bottom of the
ocean. The waves struck through the
skylights and rushed down into the hold
of the ship and hissed against the boilers.
1t was an awful time; but, by the blessing
of God and the faithfulness Of the men in
charge, we came ont of the cyclone and
we arrived at home. Each one before
leaving the ship thanked Capt. Andrews.
do not think there was a man or woman
that went off that ship without thanking
Capt. Andrews, and when years after I
heard of his death was impelled to write
letter Of coincidence to his family in
Liverpool. Everybody recognized the
goodness, the courage, the kindness of
Capt. Andrews; but it occurs to me now
that we never thanked the engineer. He
stood away down in the darkness amid the
kissing furnaces doing his whole duty.
Nobody thanked the engineer, but God
recognized his heroism and his continu-
ond hio H1nIitv aud fhara will ha
just as high reward for the engineer who
worked out of sight as for the captain who
stood on the bridge of the ship in the
midst of the bowling tempest.
There are said to be $4,000 ministers OF
religion in this country. About $4,000 I
warrant came from early homes which had
to struggle for the necessaries of life. The
sons of rich bankers and merchants gener-
ally become bankers and merchants. The
most of those who become ministers are
the sons of those who had terrific struggle
to get their everyday bread. The collie
giate and theological education of that son
took every luxury from the parental table
for eight years. The other children were
more scantily appareled. The son at col
lege every little while got bundle from
home. In it we're the socks that mother
had knit, sitting up late at night, her sight
not as good as once 1t was. And there
also were some delicacies from the sisters
hand for the voracious appetite of hun
cry student. The father swung the heavy
cradle through the wheat, the sweat rolling
from his chin bedewing every step of the
way, and then sitting down under the
cherry tree at noon thinking to himself:
II am fearfully tired, but it will pay if I
| can once see that boy through college, and
if can know that he will be preaching
the Gospel after | am dead" The younger
children want to know why they can't have
this and that as others do, and the mother
says: "Be patient, my children, until
your brother graduates, and then you shall
have more luxuries; but we must see that
boy through"
The years go by, and the son has been
ordained and is preaching the glorious
Gospel, and a great revival comes, and
souls by scores and hundreds accept the
Gospel from the lips of that young
preacher, and father and mother, quite old
now, are visiting the son at the village
parsonage, and at the close of a Sabbath
of mighty blessing father and mother re-
tire to their room, the son Lighting the
way and asking them if he can do anything
to make them more comfortable, saying il
they want anything in the night Just to
knock on the wall. And then, all alone,
father and mother talk over the gracious
influences of the day and say: "Well, it
was worth all we went through to educate
that boy. 1t was hard pull, but we held
on till the work was done. The world
may not know it, but, mother, we held the
rope, didn't we?" And the voice, tremu-
lous with joyful emotion, responds: "Yes,
father, we held the rope. feel my work
is done. Now, Lord, lettest thou thy serv-
ant depart in peace, for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation"
"Pshawl" says the father. never felt
30 much like living in my life as now. 1
want to see what that fellow is going on to
do, he has begun so we'll"
Something occurs to me quite personal.
I was the youngest of a large family Of chill
dren. My parents were neither rich nor
poor; four of the sons wanted collegiate
education, and four obtained it, but not
without great home struggle. We never
heard the old people say once that they
were denying themselves to effect this, but
l remember now that my parents always
looked tired. 1 don't think they
ever got rested until they lay
down in the Somerville cemetery.
Mother would sit down in the even
ing and say: "Well, 1 don't know what
makes me feel so tired!" Father would
fall Immediately to sleep, seated by the
evening stand, overcome with the days fa-
tigue. One of the four brothers, after
preaching the gospel for about fifty years,
entered upon his heavenly rest. Another
of the four is on the other side of the
earth. missionary of the cross. Two of
us are in this land in the holy ministry, and
I think all of us are willing to acknowledge
our obligation to the old folks at home.
About twenty one years age the one, and
about twenty three years ago the other,
put down the burdens Of this life. but they
still hold the rope.